Two-male t.



PATENTED DEC. l0, 1907.

WI TNESSES INVENTOR. -loofy ///r BY l I ATTORNEY.

- secured. The couplingin tions, and has for its object to permit the'i0y of the invention which -is as follows:

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oFEIoE.

GEORGE A. MILLER, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO ST. LOUISLIGHTNING ROD CO.,

1 OF ST. LOUlS, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OFv MISSOURI.

' TWO-MALE T.

Application filed February 4| v Specific-ation of Letters Patent.'

Patented Dec. 10, 1907.

1907. Serial No. 355.625.

To all whom it may concern: v

Be it known that I, GEonGI-z A. MILLER, citizen of the United States,residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new andusefulslmprovements in Two, Male Ts, of which the follouing is a full,clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part hereof.

Myinvention has relation to improvements in two-male tees or couplings.for lightning rods and it consists in the novel construction of couplingmore fully set forth in the specification and pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a side eleva.'- tion of a section of a roofof a house showing the applicationof myinvention to a lightning rodthereon 5 Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the invention; Fig. 3is a cross section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, showing in dotted outline 'thepossible-positionsof the point-rod; Fig. 4 isa side view of the malesection of the coupling; Fig. 5 lis a side view of the female ortion;Fig. 6 is a top plan of a modified orm of tee or coupling; and Fig. 7 isa side view of Fig. 6.

The present coupling or tee-has special application in the coupling oflightning rod seccoupling of two sections running in a continuous or-inthe same direction, and at the same time permit the coupling to said teeof a third section running at right angles to the first named sections,the direction of such third section being capable of accurate adjustmentaccording to the specific purpose it 1s to subserve.

The present tee is speciall plicable in connection with the point-ro alightning rod system, where it is desirable to give the rod a verticaldisposition to enable it to conuc; off to the best advantage .theelectric u1 4 The advantages of the present tee will be better apparentfrom a detailed description Referring to the drawings, and moreparticularly to Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive, R, R, represent two contiguouslightning rod sections (generally ten-foot lengths) to be coupledtogether, the 'coupling serving in'I this instance to carry thepoint-rod R', t at is the rod or sectionto which the lightninghrod pointP is t epresent instance is composed of a male and a female section, themale comprising a central cylindrical stem 1 terminating at one end in ascrew-threaded portion 2, and at the opposite end in an interiorlythreaded socket 3, the socket 3 receiving the screw-threaded terminalstem 4 of the adjacent rod R, and the threaded end 2 entering theterminal socket 5 of the contiguous rod R, (Fig. 2). The female sectioncomprises an open ended socket or ring 6 which is adapted to pass overand be freely rotatable about the stein 1, beingilimited in onedirection by the annular shoulder a formed between the stem 1 and baseof the socket 3. The peripheral wall of the ring 6 is rovidedwith ascrew-threaded nipple 7 to w ich is screwed the point-rod R (Fig. 1),the nipple 7 being received by the interiorly screw-threaded socket 8 atthe base of the rod, the end of the socket restin on' the shoulderaformed around the base o the said nipple 7. The rods may be semred tothe roof or any portion of the hous ther dwelling D by means-ofinsulators any approved construction.

A prevailing practice has been to cast the two-male tee in one piece.Where this is done there is no assurance that the nipple 7 will ointvertically upward after the rods R, Il), on opposite sides of the teeare screwed or coupled thereto. Should it happen for exam le that whenone rod R to which the tee ad beensecured was subsequently screwed tothe next conti ous arallel rod, and when the parts were riven g ly homeand tightened, the nipple 7 were to assume an inclined position so thatthe oint rod coupled thereto were ,to incline as s own b the left handdotted position thereof in Flg. 3, it would be a difficult mat? ter tostraighten the point-rod to a vertical position, and 'could only beaccomplished b subjecting the conductors, R R, on eac side to aconsiderable strain and undue twist. Againshouldthe initial position ofthe pointrod assume the ri ht-hand dotted position in Fig. 3, then itcou d be righted by tunning the tee to the left, or unscrewing the sameto that extent and the tight connection between the contiguous rodswould be destroypd, and the looseness could only be overcome by-"swa thelloosel edges of the tee andgird together. FVith my present improvementhowever, after the fitting ends of two contiguous rods R, R are firmlyscrewed to the male section of the coupling, it matters not whatdirection the aXis of the nipple 7 may point or how inclined, becausethe ring 6 being freely rotatable about the stem 1 can, by the'slightestloosening or unscrewing of one of therods .R on the male section, (so asto release its grip on the ring 6) be turnedfto give thea'xis of thenipple 7 a vertical direction, after which lby again tightening theslightly loosened rod, the point-rod can be screwedfto the now properlypositioned nipple and the operation is completed.

In Figs. 6 and 7 I show a. modified form of female-section in which thering 6 in addition ;to the nipple 7 is provided at ninety degreesremoved from such nipple, with an additional nipple 7 f and a socket 9whereby, in addition to the rods R, R, and point rod R', a second pairof rods or conductors C, C, leadin to any convenient oint, may beattacher In fact the ring o the female or rotatable section of thecoupling may vbe provided with anyl convenient number of nipples andsockets according to the number of end ol the opposite ro an 'annularshoulder formed between the stem and socket, and a female sectioncomprising a ring freely rotatable about the stein and bearing againstthe shoulder, and having' a peripheral screwjacent end of .one of therods, and in an enllarged interiorly screw-threaded socket at the oposite end cou led to the adjacent threaded nipple adapted to be coupledto athird rod, substantially asset forth.

In testimony whereof I aHiX my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE A. MILLER.

Witnesses:

EMIL STAREK, MARY D. WHrrooMB.

